Is the US ready to lead on sustainability?

What is the status of sustainability in the Obama Administration? How should this concept and the various issues and values clustered around it fit within the Administration's list of priorities? Law professor John Dernbach presents a number of key points in constructing the path to a sustainable America.

In his article, Navigating the US Transition to Sustainability: Matching National Governance Challenges with Appropriate Legal Tools, John Dernbach notes that "sustainable development would require the U.S. to implement over decades a significant substantive agenda that includes major reductions in its huge ecological footprint by, among other things, dramatically reducing its consumption of energy, materials, water, and land. How do we create an appropriate legal structure to reconcile those two objectives?" The article builds on the recently published book, Agenda for a Sustainable America (John C. Dernbach ed. 2009), comprehensive assessment of U.S. progress toward sustainable development and a roadmap of necessary next steps toward achieving a sustainable America.